Normal
by shirleytemplar
Summary: After awaking in the lab after staying late one night, Lucy is confronted by Subject 16 about his hallucinations. One shot, mild Lucy/Sixteen.


Lucy Stillman's eyes flickered open slowly to darkness. A sharp pain down her spine and a numbness in her left leg alerted her to the fact that she was not safe and warm in her apartment. Slowly, she sat up, blinking her bleary eyes against the bleak surroundings. She was seated in a dark room at a desk with a brightly lit computer screen alerting her that the email she had been writing had been sent and obstructing most of her view beyond it. She scowled against the blinding backlight and held her watch up to her nose. 4:13am.

"Shit…" She hissed, looking around frantically for her jacket. She had stayed late at Abstergo to finish some work and had dozed off. She rubbed at her eyes with her free hand and snatched her things with the other. She was on her feet and turning when she suddenly let out a yelp and collapsed back into the rolling chair.

'Test Subject 16' was perched on the edge of the Animus, hunched forward with his feet dangling off the side, watching her. His dark, curly hair seemed more frazzled than usual and the deep bags beneath his gray eyes betrayed him as having not slept. His sweatshirt looked more worn and than usual and his feet were bare.

"Si-Sixteen!" Lucy clutched at her chest, trying to relieve the pounding beneath it. "What are you doing out here?"

She saw his toes curl and flex and he shrugged. "W-watching you sleep."

"Oh… Wait, You were just… _Watching_ me?" A slight wave of discomfort swirled around her, causing her to scratch at her neck, effectively covering her breasts with her arm. "How did you get out here?"

Again, Sixteen shrugged, looking down. "I-I…" He closed his mouth again and swallowed. "I don't remember."

Lucy frowned. This didn't seem right, and not just that a captive test subject had managed to break out of the cell of a bedroom they kept him in. "What… What do you mean _you don't remember_?"

He said nothing for a few moments, the cold silence settling around them both. As her eyes began to adjust to the light. the tall, dark windows suddenly alerted Lucy to how vulnerable she was. The pencil skirt she wore restricted much of her movement and she knew that at this hour, they were probably the only two people in the entire complex. A light panic began to tug at the bag of her mind.

Sixteen brought his hands into his lap, wringing them, twisting his fingers. "I mean I can't remember, Lucy." He looked up at her suddenly, causing her to jump slightly, his gray eyes seemed to be reflecting some unknown light, glowing brilliantly white in the darkness. "Lucy, when I woke up… I mean, when I got out of bed, i-it was 1479."

"What?" Lucy lowered her hand, scooting the rolling chair a few inches closer to Sixteen. He was wringing his hands again, avoiding her gaze.

"A-and you weren't you," He was twisting his hands again, back and forth, clicking his thumbnails and scratching at his skin. "You were this… This beggar woman… I-I can't remember her name. But we weren't here, we were in Damascus a-and…" As he spoke, his words had become flustered, he was trying harder and harder to say them and his temples had begun to sweat. He pulled his eyes closed tightly, as if trying to remember a dream and clapped his hands over his face

"Those are just memories—" Lucy tried, but he cut her off.

"N-No, Lucy," He slid off of the Animus and darted towards her. "They're not just memories. They're becoming my life, they're becoming _my_ memories." He was directly in front of her, leaning forward with his hands on either side of the rolling chair she sat in. Lucy willed herself to become smaller, to shrink out of this chair and scamper out of the door. Despite herself, her breathing grew harder as she looked up into his gray eyes.

"W-Well, I-I… I" She stumbled over the word a few times, trying to avoid his gaze. "I guess hallucinations are n-normal when—"

"NORMAL?" He began to walk, pushing the chair in front of him. Lucy scrambled to pick up her legs lest they be caught on a wheel or under his feet. "Do you think it's NORMAL to see a horse trot through your bedroom? What about seeing blood on your hands over and over and _over_ again no matter how many times you wash them?" They were picking up speed, each step coming faster than the one before it. "What about _hearing_ Latin, understanding it when I hadn't even heard three words of it a month ago. Lucy's heart leapt against her ribcage, pulsing adrenaline out through her blood causing her fingertips to tingle and he knees to shake.

He suddenly tightened his grip on the chair, stopping and planting his feet as he swung it (and Lucy) around himself, causing her to yelp a bit and whimper. She snapped her eyes closed and groped for the arm rests, brushing his hand accidently and quickly withdrawing them, willing herself to not go flying. She could hear Sixteen breathing over her, felt his face move closer to hers. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"Is it_ normal_, Lucy, to not know what _year_ it is?" He began walking again, slower, but stronger this time, each step shoving her forward and rocking her back for a fraction of a moment as he changed feet. The entire time his nose an inch from hers.

He took a step.

"Is…"

A step.

"It…"

He took a third step. They ran into up against one of the windows, stopping the chair dead. The cold air licked at the back of Lucy's neck, causing her to shiver.

"_Normal._" He sneered the word, moving closer to her, causing her to slide down the chair as far as she could, which did not at all make up for his movement. She swallowed, trying to control her breathing as she watched his gray eyes, enraged and afraid, rove over her own face. His mouth slacked open and his face tilted forwards. His tongue flicked at his bottom lip for a moment but his features did not change.

The pounding in Lucy's chest filled up her ears. She felt her shoulders arch towards her ears and her face moved subconsciously up towards his. Standing over her, he seemed like this great, bulking, terrible mass. If he wanted, he could snap her in half like a twig. If he could escape from his room, he could escape from the building. He could kill her with a flick of his wrist and no one would ever find him.

A sharp intake of breath and her teeth slid down lightly over her lip, her eyes shifting between each of his. The shaking from the adrenaline had subsided for the moment that she stared up at him. She wanted to reach out, to touch his face and say everything would be all right. Her finger twitched on the armrest.

He swallowed.

"I-Is it normal… Lucy, to-to not know what _century_ it is?"

His entire demeanor changed. His fearsome size shrunk back and he stood as if suspended from broken marionette strings. The rage turned to sadness and his face fell, a remarkable pain reflected in every line. A sudden twinge in Lucy's heart caused her entire body to grow rigid. Her mouth twitched and she dropped her eyes from Sixteen completely. She felt him release his hold on the chair and stand back. She turned her eyes back to him.

He stumbled backwards form her, arms held out to steady himself. He looked as if he had forgotten where he was. He looked around scared, glancing over his shoulder before looking back at Lucy. His open-mouthed frown and upward-turned eyebrows etched regret and apology in the shadows on his face.

Lucy lowered her legs back to the floor as she watched him stumble, flinging himself around awkwardly, tripping over his own feet as he moved. She began to stand, wanting to help him as he grasped the Animus to keep himself steady when he wheeled himself around to face her again.

"L-Lucy…"

"Yes, Sixteen?" Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. Her entire body was at war with itself. Half of her wanted to run to him while the other half wanted to get as large of a distance between them as it could

"I-I'm sorry."

Lucy's breath caught in her throat. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing formulated in her mouth, let alone in her brain so she closed it again. She released herself slowly back into the chair and gave Sixteen a small nod. The corners of his mouth twitched but the rest of his face did not register any sort of smile. He turned around and walked slowly, carefully, back to his room and the door slid closed behind him.

Lucy did not know how long she sat in the chair, stunned into silence and stillness, simply staring after him. Her body felt cold and numb, a light shaking from the adrenaline had returned and she heard the heels of her shoes click lightly on the cold tile beneath them.

She inhaled sharply and suddenly, rising to her feet as she realized just how much she needed to get out of the building. She clambered back over to the desk, wrenching her things up with quivering hands. She stacked papers and threw on her coat before jabbing the computer's power button and hurrying towards the door. As she moved past the door to Sixteen's bedroom, she slowed her pace for a few steps, staring at it, imagining him inside; he was splashing water on his face, gripping the edge of the counter, curling in on himself, shaking and scared.

For the fraction of a second, a flash of subconscious concern and yearning, she wanted to stop, to rush into the room, to—

Lucy shook her head fiercely and scampered out of the door on her toes.

* * *

AN: Hnnng, this is so ridiculous. xD I was falling asleep at about 5am when I just had to write it. Unending love for Assassin's Creed. I play Lucy Stillman over on the AC Tumblr roleplay, and Lucy and Sixteen have a lot of tension (as his player and mine both believe sexual) and ohgodloveit. Anyway... Didn't proof read and listened to a LOT of Florence + the Machine while writing this. hurrdurr. Enjoy~


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